{"id":250347,"date":"2016-06-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/my-memorable-interview-with-muhammad-ali\/"},"modified":"2016-06-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T07:00:00","slug":"my-memorable-interview-with-muhammad-ali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/my-memorable-interview-with-muhammad-ali\/","title":{"rendered":"My memorable interview with Muhammad Ali"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Ken Williams | Editor<\/p>\n

Boxing legend and humanitarian Muhammad Ali died June 3, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 74.<\/p>\n

In Ali\u2019s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, an estimated 14,000 people attended his Muslim funeral on June 9 and another 14,000 celebrated his life at an interfaith service on June 10. Thousands of people lined the streets to pay their last respects as Ali\u2019s funeral procession passed by.<\/p>\n

Ali\u2019s passing inspired me to go to newspapers.com to look up my interview with the boxing champion, which was originally published on May 19, 1977, in The Journal-News in Hamilton, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\"poster<\/a>To set the scene, three days earlier Ali had defeated Alfredo Evangelista to retain his heavyweight title. Boxing writers from around the world were trying to locate the champ to talk about his next bout set for Sept. 29, 1977, against challenger Earnie Shavers. But Ali was sequestered in a remote location and only talking to a select group of entertainment writers about the upcoming release of his first movie, \u201cThe Greatest,\u201d which was the story of his life. I was one of those lucky few journalists who were granted a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

My headline was: \u201cHas real Ali been discovered?\u201d The reason for that headline is that Ali revealed a lot of personal information that had never before been reported. The champ revealed a side of himself that had largely been kept private.<\/p>\n

Of course Ali talked up his movie, and here is what he said:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 It\u2019s not just a boxing picture. It starts with me winning the gold medal in Rome, about how I threw the Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River, how I was denied eating in a restaurant in Louisville, Ky., shows the plantation I used to work on for Billy Reynolds of Reynolds Aluminum, things that happened there and why I quit the job, shows how I joined the Muslim religion, shows when I first turned professional, how I started predicting with my poems, how I beat people, shows how I defied the draft, why I didn\u2019t go, how I met my first and second wives, shows what happened before I fought Sonny Liston who threatened to cancel the fight if I didn\u2019t deny my faith and what I did, about the shootout I had with the Ku Klux Klan in Atlanta, Ga., just before I fought Jerry Quarry. Many, many things in this film that most people don\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Ali was already talking about retiring from boxing in 1977, even though he continued to fight another four years until he lost to Trevor Berbick in the much-hyped \u201cDrama in the Bahamas\u201d on Dec. 11, 1981. Ali talked about wanting to make more movies, which he didn\u2019t, and how he planned to preach the word of Allah. Quoting from my article:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I like the ministry,\u201d Ali said. \u201cI would like to be an evangelist and go out and spread the word of the Islamic religion everywhere.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He said he already had invitations to nearly every corner of the earth. \u201cYes, people all across the world recognize me, so that\u2019s why I want to work for God and to help people.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Ali then related an experience of visiting the slums in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and seeing bums, tramps, winos and drug addicts.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to help these people,\u201d he said. \u201cSee, these people are forgotten about. These are people God is testing us with. If we don\u2019t help these people, God\u2019s going to punish us. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought about what greater thing can I do with my fame, my popularity and my money and the money I raise then to help supply these types of houses [which give free meals and clothes to those without] in different cities. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe should feed them, clothe them, encourage them to get a job, encourage them to get off narcotics or alcohol. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you think this would be a service to humanity? That\u2019s the kind of stuff I want to do. A lot of people have good hearts, but they never thought about helping others.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople should help these kind of people. When we die, God\u2019s going to bless us for that. God\u2019s going to judge us on how we treat people and I think I can help get this thing started where other celebrities \u2014 black and white \u2014 can donate to the cause of helping people. This is what I want to do. I\u2019ve been offered millions to do movies and television shows. What can I do to satisfy my soul and really help me? I\u2019ve got Rolls Royces, millions of dollars, and I\u2019m still not happy. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think somebody should start and help these people. My real job, my real mission, is helping people, preaching the Word of God. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe preach Christianity \u2013 or any of the other religions \u2013 but how many of us go out there and do what Jesus did? All of these churches that ain\u2019t doing no good. How come out of all these churches I can\u2019t get anybody to talk about this? What good is that church doing them?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

During my interview, I was struck that the Ali speaking on the telephone didn\u2019t sound like the brash persona he maintained in public. So I had the nerve to ask him about his image, as I put it, as an \u201cegotistical loudmouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just for publicity,\u201d Ali said. \u201cYou see, people like to be mystified, to be confused. Tell them Count Dracula meets the Wolfman and you’ll have a line 40 miles long. Tell them \u2018Jaws\u2019 is eating people up, and they\u2019ll have the biggest sellout in history. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTell them they want to know what\u2019s on the moon or on Mars. They spent $2 billion for four rocks from Mars. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like to be mystified. Tell them Santa Claus is coming tonight, the Three Bears, Tarzan \u2014 all of this is unreal. They like to be mystified. So I give them what they want: \u2018He shall fall in Seven, if that don\u2019t do, I\u2019ll get him in Two.\u2019 So they buy tickets. So they come to see \u2018Can he do it, can he do it?\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey enjoy being puzzled. So I give them this. See, a wise man can act a fool, but a fool can not act like a wise man.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, Ali was no fool. My interview with Ali was picked up by the Associated Press, and the article was republished in newspapers across the world. People sent me clips from near and far.<\/p>\n

As a 25-year-old journalist, it showed me the power of the press and how a good interview will connect with readers. It was also a memory to cherish. RIP, champ.<\/p>\n

\u2014Ken Williams es editor de Uptown News y puede ser contactado en\u00a0ken@sdcnn.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0o al 619-961-1952. S\u00edguelo en Twitter en\u00a0KenSanDiego<\/span><\/a>, cuenta de Instagram en\u00a0KenSD<\/span><\/a>\u00a0o Facebook en\u00a0KenWilliamsSanDiego<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ken Williams | Editor Boxing legend and humanitarian Muhammad Ali died June 3, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 74. In Ali\u2019s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, an estimated 14,000 people attended his Muslim funeral on June 9 and another 14,000 celebrated his life at an interfaith service on June 10. Thousands of people lined […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":846,"featured_media":250348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"My memorable interview with Muhammad Ali","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}